Last week, the additional session’s court had found 12 persons guilty in the sensational murder case. The court had acquitted 24 others, including CPI (M) Kozhikode district secretariat member P Mohanan, for want of evidence.

The convicted CPI (M) activists are P K Kunhananthan, K C Ramachandran and T Manoj. The prosecution had found that the three CPI (M) men had conspired and hired the supari gang to target Chandrasekharan.

The supari gang members are M C Anoop, Kodi Suni, T K Rajeesh, Kirmani Manoj, S Sijith, Muhammed Shafi and K Shinoj. The other two accused V Rafeeque had arranged the vehicle for the killers and L Pradeepan had helped the accused to hide the weapons. Rafeeque also got life term in the murder case.

Chandrasekharan and a group of CPI (M) leaders had floated a rebel outfit Revolutionary Marxist Party at Onchiyam in Kozhikode district in 2008 following differences of opinion with the party leadership.

The RMP gained ground at Onchiyam, leading to the rout of the CPI (M) in the elections in 2009.